Do What Makes You Happy

September 2017 Income Report: $14,791 | All The Designs I Made For Rosevibe

I was trying to get the September income report up super early in October, but somehow it’s already October 16th. Time has really been flying this fall, and I need to decide what my next destination is. Right now, I’m staying in Romania until the end of November.

I’m doing an experiment this week to completely eliminate what I call “distractions”, which is everything from social media to time-sucks like Youtube. Working from home is amazing, but if I’m in a gloomy fall mood, getting work done becomes hard. Before I know it, I’m down a Youtube rabbit hole.

I’ve already been listening to some inspiring podcasts and getting more work done.

September Expenses

TOTAL: $34.99

September Traffic

It’s been hard to grow past a certain point, and my traffic went down by almost 10% in September.

1. Amazon OneLink Follow-Up

In my last income report, I mentioned Amazon’s great new add-on called OneLink. It redirects international users to their local Amazon store for the product clicked. So far, only Canada and UK are a part of it.

Well, my UK account was already closed for incomplete information about my website. Since it’s still connected to OneClick, I’m still generating revenue for Amazon but I’m not getting any of my affiliate commission. I’m saying this as a head’s up in case you’re a part of the program. Make sure your information is complete and lists all your websites.

I’ve been keeping my account up and have updated my information while trying to get Amazon to reopen my account.

Was the switch worth it? It’s honestly hard to tell, since I might be losing money from international customers who normally shop from Amazon.com. My overall commission from Amazon.com has gone down since implementing OneClick. What makes the most sense is that I’m earning more, and would have earned less if I hadn’t made the change.

2. I tweaked the design and I’m finally happy with it.

I finally tweaked this site’s design to make it a little bit more polished, more feminine, and more of what I personally enjoy. This makes me happy because because it’s so hard for me to be satisfied with a theme.

I’m not a web designer. Everything I do is self-taught and most likely not proper, but I get a lot of joy from creating themes from scratch. The sad part is that, being a beginner, I’m often unhappy with what I make. My themes aren’t as polished as they should be.

Coming up is a brief history of my themes for this site, which you might consider skipping if you’re reading this. The lesson I learned is this: don’t get blinded by “branding” and by what you believe your site should look or feel like. Make it what YOU like.

My first theme for this site was 100% random, and I created it from scratch with no branding in mind. I did what I felt like doing, and it turned out feminine and light. Back then, my site was online but I don’t even think it was indexed. The “branding” and design was confused and unprofessional.

Then I decided to redesign the site with purpose. With branding in mind. And I wanted my site to be simple, modern, and powerful while still being feminine. I came up with something that was okay, but ultimately just not me:

Initially I loved that theme, but my excitement wore off quickly. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t what Rosevibe really is. So during my summer in Halifax, I spent a few sunny days on the patio working on my theme again (those were the days!). I tweaked it and made it a little bit more me:

Since I still wasn’t happy with it, I decided to tweak it again to make it more feminine. I started a design from scratch in Photoshop, but I modified the existing theme. I wanted something lighter and more feminine. More pink, because I love pink god damn it! I also found a free font I love (Europa).

I’m finally happy with the design and I feel like it’s unique while still being conventional. It’s also light, modern, and feminine. I feel close to my final destination when it comes to this site’s design.

3. Update On Hiring An Assistant

Back in May, I finally hired a part-time assistant to help with my main blog. I wanted to be able to devote more time to other projects while still growing that site. It didn’t work out, and I think my mistake was hiring only one person who can do a little bit of everything as opposed to hiring multiple people for specifics tasks.

Once I go back to hiring outside help, I’m going to hire based on specific skills (for example social media, writing, organizational skills, and so on) rather than trying to find one person who can do everything.

I also noticed that the more frequent updates and social media postings weren’t having much of an impact on my numbers, which made it easier to make a decision.

Ty for reading!

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